Scientists find natural predator to lionfish

KINGSTON – Research done by U.S. scientists in the Cayman Islands suggests that native predators can be trained to gobble up invasive lionfish that colonize regional reefs and voraciously prey on juvenile marine creatures.

The invasive species with a flowing mane of venomous spines has no natural predators in the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. Native sharks and groupers typically avoid healthy lionfish, a native to the Indian and Pacific oceans that was likely introduced through the pet trade.

However, when a University of Florida team tethered spry lionfish to lead weights on reefs off Little Cayman, underwater video cameras late showed nurse sharks and Nassau groupers gulping them down.

Thomas Frazer, one of the researchers and the director of the University of Florida’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, said the study suggests that sharks and groupers “have the capacity to learn to pursue, capture and consume” lionfish without human intervention.

“Findings from this study simply suggest that conditioning is likely to facilitate the learning process. On a local scale, predation on lionfish by sharks and groupers is likely to enhance culling efforts,” Frazer said.

Some researchers and lionfish wranglers who were not involved in the study expressed doubt about the findings, arguing that tethered fish do not behave naturally and likely trigger an unusual feeding response in predators.

“I am highly skeptical that a native predator eating a tethered lionfish means that those predators will eat untethered lionfish,” said Mark Hixon, a University of Hawaii professor of marine ecology and conservation biology.

Lad Akins of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, a Florida-headquartered organization of divers and marine enthusiasts, said he believes feeding lionfish to native predators in the Cayman Islands or anywhere else is dangerous.

“A number of people have been bitten, sometimes badly, by conditioned predators. The dive industry, regulatory agencies and resource managers have come out against the unsafe and unproven practice of feeding lionfish to predators,” Akins said.

I agree with Lad. They tried training sharks down in the islands a few yrs ago and as lad said some got bite also like the story says dead fish act differently. I have a diver who spears them for me. Who has told me he has been followed when shorting lions. Had a 10 tiger swim 3 ft above him trying to get his stringer